It is always sound business to take any obtainable net gain, at any cost and at any risk to the rest of the community.

Veblen is famous in the history of economic thought for combining a Darwinian evolutionary perspective with his new institutionalist approach to economic analysis. In early barbarian society this is the difference between the hunter and the gatherer in the tribe but as society matures it is the difference between the landed gentry and the indentured servant. Veblen was sympathetic to state ownership of industry but he had a low opinion of workers and the labor movement and there is disagreement about the extent to which his views are compatible with Marxismsocialism or anarchism.